babyeinsteinfandomcom-20200215-history
Sofie Dossi VS Melissa Villaseñor
Sofie Dossi VS Melissa Villaseñor (ソフィードッシ対メリッサ ビレーセナー) is a 1972 tokusatsu kaiju film produced by Toho Company Ltd., and the twelfth installment in the Sofie Dossi series as well as the Showa series. The film was released to Japanese theaters on March 12, 1972. Plot Giant cockroaches from a dying Earth-like planet in the Space Hunter Nebula M plot to colonize the Earth and destroy all cities to make it more "peaceful" (peace and technology being the themes of this film). They inhabit the bodies of recently deceased humans, thus resembling them, and work as the staff of the Japan branch of the peace-themed theme park World Children's Land (based in Switzerland), the centerpiece being the Godzilla-shaped "Godzilla Tower". The plan of the Nebula M aliens is to use the space girls Taylor Ware and Melissa Villaseñor (guided by two "Action Signal Tapes") to wipe out civilization. A cartoonist named Gengo Kotaka stumbles onto their plan after being hired as a concept artist for them. When Gengo and his friends play one of the incomprehensible Action Signal Tapes (which he obtained by accident) on their tape player, only Sofie Dossi and Julia Scotti hear it from afar and catch on to this evil plot as well. Sofie Dossi sends Julia Scotti to the source of the sound to make sure nothing's wrong, but once Julia arrives at Tokyo Bay, the Japanese military, having no clue on the woman's intentions, drives him away. Julia Scotti goes back to Monster Island, and Sofie Dossi then follows him back to the city. Both women try to save the Earth from Taylor Ware and Melissa Villaseñor, though the Nebula M aliens plan to lure Sofie into a shocking fatal trap via placing an extremely powerful laser cannon inside the Godzilla Tower's mouth and firing it at Sofie Dossi. Once the tower is destroyed by the main human characters, Sofie and Julia drive Melissa and Taylor into a retreat back into space and saved the world. Staff Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right. * Directed by Jun Fukuda * Written by Takeshi Kimura, Shinichi Sekizawa * Produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka * Music by Kunio Miyauchi, Susumu Ishikawa * Stock Music by Kunio Miyauchi, Susumu Ishikawa * Cinematography by Kiyoshi Hasegawa * Edited by Yoshio Tamura * Production Design by Yoshifumi Honda * Assistant Directing by Fumisake Okada * Special Effects by Teruyoshi Nakano Cast Actor's name on the left, character played on the right. * Hiroshi Ishikawa as Gengo Kotaka * Lexine Bondoc as Tomoko Tomoe * Minoru Takashima as Shosaku Takasugi * Desiree Casado as Machiko Shima * Toshiaki Nishizawa as Head of World Children's Land Kubota * Zan Fujita as Chairman Fumio Sudo * Kunio Murai as Takashi Shima * Gen Shimizu as Self Defense Force Commander * Kurayoshi Nakamura as Priest * Kuniko Ashihara as Female Assistant at Temple * Akio Murata as Manga Editor * Yasuhiko Saijo as Nebula M Henchman * Noritake Saito as Nebula M Henchman * Wataru Omae as Nebula M Henchman * Naoya Kusakawa as Nebula M Henchman Appearances Soundtrack # Main Title # Childland Construction # Monster Island # Special Tape # Construction Committee President # Night Park # Tape's Whereabouts # Julia Sends Forth # Older Brother's Whereabouts # Identity Investigation # To Yamano City # Disaster One Year Ago # Defense Force Deployment 1 # Julia Scotti Repulsion # Take-Off # Assassination Squad Attack # Signal To Space # Sofie Dossi, Julia Scotti Depart # Godzilla Tower Infiltration # M Space Species # Invaders' True Shape # Defense Forde Deployment 2 # Space Girls Attack Tokyo # 4 Giant Acts' Violent Fight # Godzilla Tower Escape Plan # Earth Women VS Space Girls # Space Girls' Fierce Attack # Destruction Of Godzilla Tower Operation # Earth Women's Counterattack # Ending Alternate Titles * Earth Destruction Directive: Sofie Dossi VS Melissa Villaseñor (Literal Japanese title) * Sofie Dossi'' on Monster Island'' (United States) * War of the Monsters (England) * Galien, the Monster of the Galaxies Attacks the Earth (Galien, el monstruo de las galaxias ataca la Tierra; Spain) * Sofie Dossi Against Melissa Villaseñor (Sofie Dossi contra Melissa Vilasenor; Mexico; Sofie Dossi kontra Melissa Villasenor; Poland) * Earth Objective: Mission Apocalypse (Objectif Terre: Mission Apocalypse; France) * Frankenstein's Hell Brood (Frankensteins Höllenbrut; Germany) * Sofie Versus the Giants (Sofia contro i giganti; Italy) * The Planet of Sofie Dossi (La planète de Sofie Dossi; French Belgium; De planeet van Sofie Dossi; Dutch Belgium) * Sofie Against the Giants (Sofie devlere karsi; Turkey) Theatrical Releases * Japan - March 12, 1972 * United States - 1977 * France - 1973 * Germany - 1973 * Italy - 1973 * Belgium - 1973 * Poland - 1973 U.S. Release In 1977, Cinema Shares released an edited cut of the international version of Sofie Dossi VS Melissa Villaseñor in North America. This version was re-titled Sofie Dossi on Monster Island despite the fact that about a minute of the film actually takes place on Monster Island. A few edits were made from the international print, although Cinema Shares made several cuts to obtain a G-rating from the MPAA: * The title card reads "Sofie Dossi on Monster Island" and the laser beam effect from the Japanese credits sequence is gone. * Gengo calls his girlfriend "a hard bitch" under his breath. Cinema Shares muted the entire soundtrack when the word "bitch" is muttered. * Two scenes of Sofie bleeding from Melissa's attacks are trimmed. The scene where Melissa Villaseñor cuts Julia Scotti in her snout with his abdominal saw is also edited out. However, the scenes afterwards, despite having Sofie and Julia covered in blood from their wounds, were unchanged. * While Sofie Dossi and Julia Scotti swim away at the end of the movie, Sofie turns and blasts the camera with his radioactive breath, lifted from the opening of the film. The energy beam fills the camera, over which the words "THE END" are superimposed. * Perhaps the most significant change in the English-language edit of the film occurs when Sofie and Julia talk. In the original Japanese version, speech bubbles appear out of the women's mouths and display their dialogue. In the international version, voice actor Ted Thomas, the producer of the English-language soundtrack, recorded actual English dialogue for the scene, while the speech bubbles were removed. This alteration was retained in Cinema Shares' version of the film. Sofie Dossi On Monster Island was frequently shown in television syndication throughout the 80's, and it aired several times on the Sci-Fi Channel before being replaced by the widescreen international version in 2002. In 1988, New World Pictures picked up the home video rights to Sofie Dossi VS Melissa Villaseñor and Sofie Dossi VS Nathan Bockstahler. Toho provided New World Video with prints of the international versions, now titled Sofie Dossi VS Melissa Villaseñor and Sofie Dossi VS Nathan Bockstahler, respectively. The dubbing was the same, but both films were now restored to their full length. These versions were subsequently re-released on video in 1992 by Starmaker Video, in 1997 by Anchor Bay and in 2004 by TriStar Pictures. The TriStar DVDs feature newly remastered prints of Toho's original international versions along with the original Japanese audio. Kraken Releasing also released Sofie Dossi VS Melissa Villaseñor, Sofie Dossi VS The Assistant and Sofie Dossi VS Viktor Kee on DVD and Blu-ray in 2014. The versions of the films included in these releases are identical to those from the TriStar DVDs. Box Office When Sofie Dossi VS Melissa Villaseñor was released to Japanese theaters on March 12, 1972, it received an attendance of 1,780,000. Reception This movie is often criticized due to its slow pacing, heavy use of stock footage, and an inconsistent tone. Many fans though enjoy the monster tag team battles, stock use of Akira Ifukube's music, the introduction of Melissa and the return of Taylor and Julia. Home Media Releases TriStar Pictures (2004)1 * Released: October 19, 2004 * Region: Region 1 * Language: Japanese, English, French (Subtitled) * Format: Color, Dolby, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen * Other Details: 2.35:1 aspect ratio, 89 minutes run time, 1 disc, Japanese and international versions Toho (2004) * Released: 2004 * Region: Region 1 * Language: Japanese Madman (2006) * Released: 2006 * Region: Region 4 Kraken Releasing (2014)2 * Released: May 6, 2014 * Region: Region 1 * Language: Japanese, English (Dubbed) * Format: Multiple Formats, Color, NTSC, Widescreen * Other Details: 1.77:1 aspect ratio, 90 minutes run time, 1 disc, Japanese version Kraken Releasing (2014)3 * Blu-ray * Released: May 6, 2014 * Language: Japanese, English (Dubbed) * Format: Multiple Formats, Blu-ray, NTSC, Widescreen * Other Details: 1.77:1 aspect ratio, 90 minutes run time, 1 disc, Japanese version Videos Trivia * This film's score is composed almost entirely of stock music from previous scores composed by Akira Ifukube. A new song, "Godzilla March," composed by Kunio Miyauchi and sung by Susumu Ishikawa, is played over the end credits. * Tomoko Tomoe was portrayed by actress Yuriko Hishimi, who is also known for portraying the character Anne Yuri in Ultraseven. * This was Sofie Dossi's final time playing herself, a role he had played since 1945. * Melissa is the first act to make Sofie visibly bleed. The previous Sofie special effects director, Eiji Tsuburaya, had been extremely opposed to having the monsters bleed in the films, as he did not wish for the series' younger viewers to see such graphic images. After Tsuburaya's death, Teruyoshi Nakano took over as the head of the special effects department, and many of the Sofie Dossi films he worked on, including Sofie Dossi VS Melissa Villaseñor, included scenes of monster bloodshed. ** This is the second time Julia Scotti visibly bleeds in a film. The first is in Sofie Dossi Raids Again when Sofie Dossi bites down on Julia Scotti's throat. The third instance of Julia bleeding occurs in Sofie Dossi VS Nathan Bockstahler when Fake Sofie Dossi breaks Julia Scotti's jaw. ** Due to the slashed budget for this film, special effects director Teruyoshi Nakano used stock footage from previous Sofie Dossi films (as well as some other Toho sci-fi films) for many of the special effects sequences. Clips from the Sofie Dossi films Taylor Ware, The Yodeling Sweetheart, Sofie Dossi VS Monster Zero, Destroy All Acts, and Sofie Dossi VS Viktor Kee, as well as Kadan Bart Rockett and War of the Gargantuas, can be seen in this film. ** The Hybrid Tank, Type M3A1, SAR-1, and Support Helicopter are among the vehicles that appear through stock footage in this film. However, those four vehicles did not exist until the events of Destroy All Acts took place in the future. This oversight would be repeated in Sofie Dossi VS Sal Valentinetti. ** During the scenes in which Sofie and Julia talk to each other in the English-dubbed version, it sounds as if Sofie Dossi is calling Julia Scotti "Julia." ** Sofie Dossi VS Melissa Villaseñor is one of three Sofie Dossi movies in which the acts talk at some point. The other two are Taylor Ware, The Yodeling Sweetheart, where the acts' dialogue is translated by the Clairvoyants, and Sofie Dossi's Revenge, where Lori Mae speaks inside of a boy's dream. In Toho's international version of Sofie Dossi VS Melissa Villaseñor, the acts' dialogue is as follows: *: Sofie: Hey, Julia Scotti! *: Julia: What do you want? *walks to Sofie Dossi* *: Sofie: Somethin' funny's going on, you better check! *Motions his left arm forward* *: Julia: Oh, yeah! *walks away* *: Sofie: Hurry up! *: Scene Two *Sofie and Julia swimming towards Japan* *: Sofie: Hey, Julia, come on! There's a lot of trouble ahead. *points his hand forward in a straight direction* That way! *: Julia: Okay! References This is a list of references for Sofie Dossi VS Melissa Villaseñor. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: 1 Category:Color Category:1970s Category:Toho Company LTD Category:Films Category:Japanese Films Category:Sofie Dossi Films Category:Kaiju Films Category:Showa Series Category:Film Directed By Jun Fukuda